Cultural Services
Elder
The clinic strives to have an on staff Elder that retains lifelong knowledge in Traditional counselling and different methods of healing. They work with people using a combination of herbs, ceremony and prayer. They have learned from the Elders in their family and other Elders in various parts of the country.
The Aboriginal connection to the natural world provides the structure and approaches for healing. Most importantly, the traditional holistic way of being does not see the individual alone; or symptoms in isolation. Thus, the Elder incorporates; the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs: of the individual, the family, and the community. The Traditional way of healing is very complex and rich and difficult to explain within the linear and time ordered approaches of the Western medical practice.
The medicine wheel, familiar to many North American Indigenous cultures helps the non-western mind begin to enter the multiple layers of this traditional understanding of health and wellbeing as both individual and communal, and internal and external. For example, understanding and celebrating all stages of the life cycle (passage of the individual through infancy and childhood, youth, adulthood and elder) correspond to the four directions. Each stage in the life cycle has its seasons and gifts such as kindness, honesty, caring and strength within Aboriginal culture, and the four elements of the environment: water, air, mineral and fire associated with it. Embracing and celebrating the life cycle sees that every person has a gift to bring and a role to play in the community. Understanding the complexity of the holistic approach sees how healing can be linked to the strengths and gifts particular to the stage in the healing journey each person is on. The Elder has many gifts and resources to offer the staff and people seeking help at the clinic who want to reconnect or rely on traditional medicine and healing.